20220303 Listening Notes: The Science of Laughter

The Science of Laughter, Subtitle: Uncovering the Brain Mysteries Behind Laughter and Humor.

Aristotle said, "Man is the only species that can laugh. Before babies giggle for the first time, they have no soul. Indeed, after a baby is born, the first thing he learns is to cry, and the second thing is to laugh. Laughter is too common for us. But if I ask you, what function does laughter mean to human beings? Why don't many other animals laugh, and only humans have evolved a rich and complex humor mechanism? You will find this question really difficult to answer.

The Science of Laughter takes us to understand the essence of humor from the perspective of evolutionary psychology.

Scott weems, the author of this book, received a doctorate in cognitive neuroscience from UCLA and a master's degree in creative writing from Leslie University. He is also a researcher at the Center for Advanced Language Studies at the University of Maryland, USA, studying human behavioral neuroscience.

You will find the author's triple identity interesting. As a neuroscientist, he understands the working principle of our brain and can explain the mechanism of humor from the bottom. At the same time, he is also a linguist and creative writing researcher. He knows how we create humor. Therefore, the book The Science of Laughter looks at humor from different angles, not only from the perspective of the brain, but also from the perspective of what humor means to us. From the comedian's point of view, I also talk about how we can make ourselves more humorous.

Next, I will interpret this book for you in three parts. In the first part, let's look at why our brains have evolved this trait of humor. In the second part, let's look at what humor is. The third part, let's understand the essence of humor, and then look at how to make our life better.

By the way, humor is a very dependent thing on cultural knowledge, so some joke examples used in the book can make Americans laugh, but China people may not understand this joke, so I will replace these examples with jokes that are easier for us to understand.

first part

Let's look at the first question first. Why did the human brain evolve the mechanism of humor?

Humans have been laughing since infancy, and we can be amused before we learn to speak. Laughter is so natural to us. But if you look at it from another angle, it seems a bit strange to laugh at it from the perspective of biological evolution.

In most animals, there is no concept of laughter. We can see some photos on the Internet and capture the moment when cats, dogs and even dolphins smile. In fact, we just happened to make that expression, but we weren't really laughing.

Animals closer to humans, such as chimpanzees, can indeed be amused, but not as often as humans. Some scientists have done statistics, and we laugh fifteen to twenty times a day on average.

Moreover, human beings are the only animals that can keep laughing. If you laugh so hard, people will even lie prone on the ground with laughter. If you think from the perspective of human evolution, you will find this mechanism incredible.

Imagine that ten thousand years ago, two primitive people were chatting. One said that it was so funny to hear someone tell a joke yesterday. The other said, really? Then tell me. After telling the joke, the two primitive people rolled with laughter. A big tiger followed the laughter and found it. At first glance, two primitive people rolled with laughter and couldn't run. Then I'm welcome. Let me have a buffet.

So you see, for primitive people, the role of laughter can not only help them survive in the cruel natural environment, but may even bring danger. In the past, there was a popular saying on the Internet that "girls who can laugh will not have too bad luck", but according to our imagination just now, primitive people who can laugh should have been eliminated by the laws of nature. Why did humans evolve the function of laughter?

There is only one explanation, that is, laughter means more to human beings than we think.

To understand the meaning of laughter to human beings, we must understand two things, one is the living environment of human beings, and the other is the working mechanism of the brain.

Let's talk about the living environment of human beings.

Generally speaking, the creatures on the earth can be divided into two types, one is called holding the ground and the other is called guerrilla.

The most extreme example of occupying creatures is an insect called zhōng in Costa Rica. It only lives in a tree all its life, and the longer it grows, the more it looks like a leaf on that tree. It protects itself through this disguise. But if you move it to another tree, its camouflage will be exposed and it will be easily eaten by natural enemies.

However, human beings took another road and became typical guerrilla creatures. Not to mention moving from one tree to another, even from the equator to the North Pole, human beings can survive tenaciously.

But guerrilla warfare in four places has the trouble of guerrilla warfare in four places. In the process of migration, human beings always have to face the new environment, digest new information and meet new challenges. Therefore, human beings must set up a set of processing system to deal with challenges quickly, so as to dare to explore, think and solve new problems.

The problem is that human beings are naturally unwilling to think actively. Because the brain is the most energy-consuming organ in the body. Our brain only accounts for 7% of our weight, but it consumes 20% to 25% of our energy. In other words, the brain is like a supercomputer, which is powerful but consumes too much power. In order to save electricity, try not to open it if you don't open it.

However, if we don't use this supercomputer, we can fight guerrilla warfare everywhere, and we can't solve all kinds of problems along the way, and we can't adapt to the ever-changing environment. Finally, human beings are very smart and have established a reward mechanism. Every time we start the supercomputer, we will give ourselves a reward if we can solve new problems and produce new knowledge. This prize is called dopamine.

You are no stranger to dopamine. It will make us feel happy. Scientists have found that dopamine is also the neurotransmitter most closely related to humor.

A neuroscientist did an experiment. He showed the subjects some cartoons and monitored their brains with a magnetic resonance vibrator. The cartoons for the subjects were selected, half of which were funny and the other half were not very funny. Therefore, a small part of the brain only responds to funny cartoons. This area is responsible for the secretion of dopamine.

There are also neuroscientists who have done research to make musicians listen to excellent music works and watch the comedy "Mr. Bean". Their brains have similar reactions and they can all feel happy.

Therefore, humor is a system developed by the brain to create happiness. Humor has the same psychological impact on everyone, because dopamine floods into the brain and makes us feel happy. When will dopamine be produced? This is the time for us to find a solution to the problem, and it is also the time for us to understand the world and generate new knowledge.

There was a plot in Conan Doyle's The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Sherlock Holmes once failed to receive the case and was so bored that he sought excitement by injecting himself with morphine. According to Holmes, solving difficult problems is as addictive as morphine. After understanding the working principle of the brain, we will find that Holmes' point of view is actually right. Moreover, compared with morphine, dopamine has no side effects.

Some scientists even suspect that apes can evolve into humans mainly by dopamine. Because dopamine makes us dare to make difficult and risky decisions, it makes us physically and psychologically thrill seekers and always makes our lives more interesting in different ways.

This is the first meaning of humor to human beings. Humor is a reward we give ourselves, which makes us more willing to use our brains to solve problems and acquire new knowledge.

In fact, humor has a second meaning for human beings, which is about the working mechanism of our brains.

Our brain is quite complex, and countless neurons are interconnected to form a neural network extending in all directions. What's even more amazing is that the brain doesn't have a final "Supreme Court" to decide our words and deeds as we imagined. The brain is more like a noisy parliament, and the electrical signals from countless neurons are like countless members of parliament, and everyone is speaking their opinions loudly. The final decision made by our brain is the result of the competition of various concepts. Simply put, it's like a quarrel between members of parliament.

This method has its advantages. It can make us more creative, better reason and solve difficult problems. But this method sometimes causes problems.

You see, there are always different voices arguing and different concepts conflicting in our minds. To use the metaphor just now, a large group of members can make a decision by arguing about a result. What if they can't argue about a result?

If the human brain, like a computer, can't handle the information in the face of conflict, it is likely to crash. But not the human brain. When we are faced with two or more incongruous concepts at the same time, if we really can't solve them, the last way to deal with them is to laugh them off.

This is the second meaning of humor to human beings. Humor is a way for us to free ourselves from inner conflicts.

Our brains often deal with chaotic or ambiguous situations, but our brains sometimes make mistakes, or our ability is not enough to solve the answers. We often get into a complicated quagmire, and then we feel anxious. Humor can relieve our inner tension.

So you see, humor has two meanings for human beings. It is not only a reward mechanism, but also makes us willing to think and acquire new knowledge. At the same time, humor is also a protective mechanism. If we lack thinking ability and get into a contradictory or ambiguous situation, the last way to deal with it is to laugh, so that our brains will not collapse.

Humor, whether guided in front or protected behind, serves for thinking. It can be said that human beings have learned to laugh just to make themselves think better.

the second part

Knowing the meaning of humor to human beings, next, we can answer the second question, what is humor? Or in other words, what kind of situation will make people feel funny?

As we mentioned just now, humor makes people think better. On the one hand, humor is a reward for serious thinking. On the other hand, humor can also help us avoid falling into contradictory information.

You will find that all kinds of humor we see, whether it is funny jokes, humorous videos, comedy movies and comedy sketches, also serve the two functions mentioned above.

Of course, there are many types of humor, and different researchers have different classifications. There is also a sentence in the book that there are at least 44 independent types of humor. But so many humorous means mostly work in two directions, one is to create new knowledge, and the other is cognitive conflict.

Let's talk about creating new knowledge first.

As we mentioned earlier, in order to make the brain think harder, human beings have evolved humor as a reward mechanism. Whenever we gain new knowledge, the brain will use dopamine as a reward to make us feel happy. So a lot of fresh knowledge itself has a comedy effect.

Nowadays, people often share some cold knowledge on the Internet, which is often spread as humorous jokes. For example, I have seen a cold knowledge before: Mount Everest, the highest peak in the world, is actually growing every year because of crustal movement. how much is it? 4 cm per year. And it will not only grow taller, but also move to the northeast. To be more precise, Mount Everest probably moves towards Changchun, moving 4 cm every year.

You see, it is such a scientific knowledge, but it naturally has a comedy effect, which will make you feel a little funny.

For another example, a foreign science magazine specially holds an "Ig Nobel Prize", which is selected every September. Let me read you some award-winning research results in recent years:

Biologists find out why people are afraid of spiders;

Psychologists have developed a method to judge who is more narcissistic by looking at eyebrows;

Physicists have studied how koalas excrete cubic feces;

Linguists find "hmm?" This word.

Similarly, simple new knowledge also has its own comedy effect, that is, creating new types of humor.

The second kind of humor is cognitive conflict humor.

As we have said before, the second meaning of humor to people is that when our brain is faced with complex and even contradictory information and doesn't know how to deal with it, the ultimate solution is to laugh so as not to let the brain enter a dead state.

Therefore, many jokes rely on this cognitive conflict to create a comedy effect.

The simplest example is my screen name "Squidward Tentacles Chen". Many people think this name is funny. In fact, this kind of fun comes from the inherent ambivalence of this name. You see, when you hear a name, your first impression seems to be a personal name, a famous surname, or three words, which is very neat. But think about it carefully, which parent, with such a big heart, can name his child "Octopus"?

You see, this is like a real name but not like it, which creates a cognitive conflict and makes people feel funny.

For example, crosstalk, allegro and folk operas all over the country will have a program called "upside down", which means that every sentence is not in line with the real situation. For example, this paragraph "north and south of East and West Street, people bite dogs in the street, pick up dogs and hit bricks, and get bitten by bricks." "and" eat milk, drink bread and carry a bag on the train. 」

Every sentence is meaningless, but it has comedy effect, which is a humorous way to create cognitive conflicts.

In fact, there is a third way to create humor, which is to combine the first two ways. Create conflicts first, and then find unexpected solutions, which will make people realize and gain new knowledge.

A good joke is actually like riding a roller coaster. Roller coasters all over the world, no matter how different the patterns are in the back, the first half is almost the same, that is, they rise bit by bit along the track. This process is very important. If there is no rising process, the second half will fly to the ground no matter how it rolls or jumps, which will be boring.

So are jokes. The process of rising in the first half is to create contradictions. If there were no conflict, only accidents, the joke wouldn't be so funny.

For example, we have all heard a word called cold jokes, and you will find that most cold jokes are just surprises and do not conflict. Many cold jokes are sloppy at the beginning. For example, a dog is walking on the road in summer, getting hotter and hotter, and it becomes a hot dog. A male deer, running on the road, ran faster and faster and became a high-speed male deer (road).

You see, this kind of joke is not short of the final reversal, but there is no obvious conflict in front, just like a roller coaster flying against the ground, which makes people want to laugh but can't, and becomes a cold joke.

Therefore, good humor is often caused by cognitive conflicts in front, which makes people confused, and there are solutions behind it, which makes people laugh.

There was once a German composer who wrote a violin concerto in his later years, deliberately adding an abrupt note in the middle. The audience will definitely feel a little harsh when listening. He may think that there must be a mistake just now, but after listening, the same notes will appear again, and the audience will be forced to assume in advance and listen with a new attitude. When he hears it again, he will have a sense of happiness in winning the lottery. He will smile when he hears this note.

There is a traditional program in crosstalk called "Stripping jacket", which is also a typical structure. The performers are A, B and C. A and B are chatting. A boasts profound knowledge and rich family, but his speech is particularly unreliable and full of loopholes. For example, when he goes to a restaurant for dinner, the roast duck flies in through the window. And it was so windy last night that the wells in his yard were blown out of the wall; In addition, he bought a big horse, which fell into a teacup and drowned.

The more I listened to it, the more wrong it became, so I asked C, because C borrowed a coat, which is probably equivalent to borrowing a particularly expensive high-end suit today. Taking advantage of others' short hands, in order to wear this high-end suit for two more days, C can only rack his brains to find a reasonable basis for A's lies. As a result, whether a restaurant flies into a roast duck, or a well blown away by the wind, or a horse falls into a tea bowl and drowns, C will really conjure up a set of vivid rhetoric and explain it clearly.

This cross talk is very consistent with the humorous structure we just said. A's nonsense is to create cognitive conflicts and create the first joke for the audience. As a result, C really found a reasonable explanation, which was an unexpected solution and a second joke.

To sum up, there are various means of comedy, but the types of humor can be roughly divided into three categories. The first category is to create new knowledge, the second category is cognitive conflict, and the third category is to combine the two means to create cognitive conflict first and then come up with an unexpected solution. This is also the most classic method of humor.

the third part

Just now, we learned the meaning of humor to human beings together, and also learned what kind of circumstances will produce humorous effects. Next, let's look at the third question. After understanding the essence of humor, how can we make our life better?

The mechanism by which human beings have evolved humor is to help them think better. Therefore, you can regard humor as an exercise of thinking. Humor can improve health, help us get along with others better, and even make people smarter. Just as physical exercise can keep our bodies in good condition.

However, whether it is physical exercise or brain exercise, blind practice may be counterproductive if you don't pay attention to the methods. Therefore, in this book, the author gives three important suggestions, with which you can make your life happier.

The first suggestion is to distinguish between "positive humor" and "negative humor".

When we talked about humor earlier, we all said the benefits of humor. In fact, not all types of humor are good, but some humor will hurt ourselves or others' psychology. This kind of humor is called negative humor.

There are two main types of negative humor. One is offensive humor, including satire and teasing others. For example, some jokes are based on other people's congenital defects, which is typical offensive humor. People who use offensive humor arm themselves in a seemingly funny way. They are actually expressing their hostility to others with humor.

The other is self-defeating humor, which does not embarrass others, but regards itself as the object of jokes. This is usually a defense mechanism for low self-worth. To put it simply, I am afraid that others will laugh at one of my shortcomings, so I will laugh at myself first to protect myself from being laughed at by others in this way.

You will find that two kinds of negative humor have the same key word, that is "ridicule". Negative humor is either mocking others or mocking yourself. In short, it is not worth the loss to suppress your self-esteem in exchange for others' laughter. Whether offensive humor or self-defeating humor, such jokes will make people more likely to experience depression, anxiety and inferiority, and will also make people's relationships tense. Over time, it will be harmful to life.

Conversely, there are some humorous ways that are beneficial to our health. These humorous ways are called "positive humor". There are also two main types of positive humor. One is harmonious humor. People with a high degree of harmony and humor like telling interesting things and sharing witty quips to entertain their friends, and also like telling jokes to reduce the tension between people. Harmonious humor is beneficial to self-psychology and interpersonal communication.

Another positive humor type is self-improvement humor. This type of people like to look at things from an interesting angle. Even in trouble, they like to find the bright side of things and keep a positive attitude with humor. We often say that pleasure in suffering is a typical self-increasing humor.

Positive humor can turn the tension or challenge between people into something that makes them laugh. Such humor can increase a person's sense of self-worth and make the relationship between people closer.

As the saying goes, "Laugh for ten years", but humor has both advantages and disadvantages. Only positive humor can make our body and mind healthier. Please look for such humor in your life.

The second suggestion, you can use humor as a protection mechanism, whether physical pain or inner anxiety, you can use humor to alleviate.

Scientists have done research. They found dozens of patients who had just finished surgery, and some insisted on watching several comedy movies every day. It turns out that patients who have seen comedy movies need 20% less painkillers on average than other patients. Scientists also test the effect of comedy movies through "cold heart experiment". The so-called cold heart experiment is to let the tester put his hand into the ice water at 1 to 2 degrees Celsius. This temperature will not cause frostbite, but it will make people feel very painful for a long time and want to take his hand out. The experimental results show that if the tester reaches into the ice bucket and watches some comedy clips, he will persist for dozens of seconds or even 10 more than others.

So some scientists say that laughter is a natural painkiller.

However, there are conditions to achieve this effect. Whether you are a patient who has just finished surgery or a tester who has participated in the ice wine experiment, the analgesic effect will not be obvious if you don't watch your favorite comedy type. Only the comedy clips they choose can achieve the analgesic effect just mentioned.

The author analyzes that it is not only laughter that brings benefits, but also our emotional input. It's easier for us to get emotional by watching our favorite comedy types. At this time, laughter can play its role.

So I suggest you watch more comedies at ordinary times, find out your favorite comedies, and then show them when necessary, which will make you feel comfortable.

The third suggestion sounds incredible, but it is true, that is, you can think of laughter as an aerobic exercise.

Someone once compared laughter to "jogging in the body". Scientists have found that laughter and jogging do have many similarities. Jogging is good for our health, mainly promoting the health of the heart and blood. When jogging, both systolic and diastolic blood pressure will rise, and blood pressure will rise, keeping our blood vessels elastic. Unhealthy blood vessels always keep a tight and stiff state, but when we need blood supply most, it will restrict the blood flow, while healthy blood vessels will relax or compress with the degree of our activities to keep the blood flow.

Some scientists have found that when we laugh, systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure also rise. Laughter, like jogging, can keep our blood supply smooth.

In addition, laughter also consumes energy. Laughing 100 times consumes about the same amount of heat as riding a bicycle 10 to 15 minutes. In this way, laughter is really an aerobic exercise. Anyway, I especially hope that scientists can develop a "laughter diet" in the future. If it succeeds, a fat man like me who likes telling jokes will be saved.

abstract

Here, I have finished reading The Scientific Essence of Laughter for you.

To sum up, in the first part, we talked about why human beings have evolved the mechanism of humor. Humor has two meanings for human beings. It is not only a reward mechanism, but also makes us willing to think and acquire new knowledge. At the same time, humor is also a protective mechanism. If we lack thinking ability and get into a contradictory or ambiguous situation, the last way to deal with it is to laugh, so that our brains will not collapse.

Humor, whether guided in front or protected behind, serves for thinking. It can be said that human beings have learned to laugh just to make themselves think better.

In the second part, we talked about how to create humor. The types of humor can be roughly divided into three categories. The first category is to create new knowledge, the second category is cognitive conflict, and the third category is to combine the two means to create cognitive conflict first and then come up with an unexpected solution. This is also the most classic method of humor.

In the third part, we talked about how to make our life better after understanding the essence of humor. Here, the author gives three suggestions. The first suggestion is to distinguish between "positive humor" and "negative humor". Don't buy laughter by suppressing others and your self-esteem. The second suggestion is that it is easier for us to put our emotions into watching our favorite comedies. At this time, you can use humor as a protection mechanism, and both physical pain and inner anxiety can be alleviated through humor. The third suggestion sounds incredible, but it is true, that is, you can take laughter as an aerobic exercise and use humor to make yourself healthier.

Finally, I want to say something about my feelings. I believe you can also hear that I like telling jokes to make others laugh, but I am also ambivalent about humor myself. On the one hand, I heard that laughter is a good medicine for life. On the other hand, I heard that the core of comedy is often tragedy. I have also read many reports, whether at home or abroad, it seems that many people who create comedies are not as happy or even depressed as we thought. This makes me curious. Is humor a good thing or a bad thing?

Under the pressure of production, comedy creators will use all available comedy means, which will inevitably produce a lot of negative humor. Humor, whether you laugh at others or belittle yourself, will eventually bring them pain.

Fortunately, we don't have such pressure and understand the essence of humor. Humans learn to laugh only to make themselves think better. So in the face of the complex world, as long as we think hard, whether we can find the answer we want or not, we will regard laughter as a reward for ourselves.